James Franco: “Maybe I’m Gay”

We’re beginning to suspect that James Franco might be one of the coolest guys out there right now. Not only is he ridiculously hot, he’s working on his Ph.D. He’s posing in stunning drag for the cover of Candy magazine. He’s acting and now might be directing some super high brow art stuff—and now he’s made a statement about the black-and-whiteness of sexuality that the Internet is running crazy with: “You know what? Maybe I’m gay.”

That’s what Franco says in an interview with Entertainment Weekly when asked about his sexual orientation. Franco’s played a number of gay roles in the past in movies like Milk, Howl, and The Broken Tower, but says he’s just interested in great roles.

“There are lots of other reasons to be interested in gay characters other than wanting myself to go out and have sex with guys,” Franco said. “I mean, I’ve played a gay man who’s living in the '60s and '70s, a gay man who we depicted in the '50s, and one being in the '20s. And those were all periods when to be gay, at least being gay in public, was much more difficult. Part of what I’m interested in is how these people who were living anti-normative lifestyles contended with opposition.”

Such an eloquent way of saying that he wants to act out the lives of interesting people who just happen to be homosexual. Of course, with his addendum—“Maybe I’m gay”—its like he’s saying ‘It doesn’t really matter if I am or am not, for I am a person and an artist, and we are all people and artists in our own way whether we are gay or straight.’ At least, that’s what we’re reading into it.